Must Android app names be unique?

Question

Can I release an Android app to Google Play if an app of the same name (not mine) already exists? Must names be unique (first come first served) or does Google Play let 'the free market' decide which one deserves the name?

Solution 1

You can release an app named the exact same title string as another app, the package name (in reverse web URL format) is what keeps it unique, for example com.yourwebsite.yourappname or com.yourwebsite.yoursuitename.yourappname, but I would suggest a creative name for something going on the market!

Solution 2

Google Play allows many apps to have the same title. However, the application package for each app needs to be unique within Google Play. This is the package attribute value that you provide for the <manifest> tag in the AndroidManifest.xml file of your project. From the docs:

The package name serves as a unique identifier for the application.

which then continues:

Caution: Once you publish your application, you cannot change the package name. The package name defines your application's identity, so if you change it, then it is considered to be a different application and users of the previous version cannot update to the new version.

Comments

[Sean Connolly]

I've got a creative name.. but someone else does too ;) The name is perfect but there another unrelated app with < 100 downloads and very bad reviews. Because of that, if I can use the same name I don't think the conflict would confuse.

[Johann]

But that doesn't answer the question as to what Google does if two developers from different companies attempt to use the same package name. What's to prevent two devs from uploading an app with a package like com.mycompany.myapp? Does the second developer who attempts to upload get a warning that it has already been taken?

[Ted Hopp]

@AndroidDev - A long-standing convention is that you derive your package name from a domain name that you have the right to use. (See, for instance the Java tutorial on naming packages.) Nothing prevents a bad actor from using an app package name that starts with, say, com.microsoft (but to what end?), but I suspect that this use could be successfully challenged on intellectual property grounds, and they might even face financially liability. Internally, companies need to have their own conventions to avoid collisions.